Videophones and video conferencing equipment are known to include a video camera as part of the phone or equipment to enable parties engaging in a telephone call to not only hear each other, but to also see each other. Each end of an audiovisual call typically includes an audio transceiver, at least one monitor and at least one camera. The audio transceiver facilitates the exchange of voice communications, the monitors enable each party to see each other, and the cameras capture the scenes to be displayed on the monitors.
In order to insure that the person or persons on the receiving end of the transmission can see the person who is currently talking, automatic capturing or video feedback mechanisms are typically used. For example, video conferencing equipment typically includes voice-activated circuitry that controls the positioning of one or more cameras to locate and capture the picture of the person who is currently talking. Videophones do not typically include such automatic capturing capability, but instead provide video feedback to the speaker to enable the speaker to move himself or herself into the video capturing volume of the videophone camera. Such feedback typically consists of feeding the video captured by the speaker's own videophone camera to the speaker's own videophone display so that the speaker can see whether or not he or she is in the video capturing volume of the camera and, when in the video capturing volume, where he or she is positioned relative to the center of the capturing volume. Therefore, video feedback requires the videophone to process two video feeds, one from the remote call participant and another from the videophone's own camera. In addition, as mentioned to above, the use of video feedback also requires the image of the speaker to be shown on the local monitor or display. Such displaying of the speaker's image takes up valuable display area, reducing the amount of display area available to display the video feed from the remote participant(s). Such a reduction in display area is particularly prominent when only one display is used to display both the speaker for video feedback purposes and the remote participant(s), and is even more prominent when the single display is small and forms part of a handheld or portable communication device.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for indicating a location of a person with respect to a video capturing volume of a camera that enable the person to position himself or herself within a desired location of the volume while minimizing the display area used to provide such an indication.